November 2017

Congruent

A Study of Humanity in Transition by Felicia DeRosa

What is it to be congruent, aligned with what is, versus what is perceived?

Felicia DeRosa explores the human condition through different lenses of perception, by examining the public things we do and say. Such things equate our outward expression and serve to inform our first impression of one another in the context of the society in which we live and as reflection of the world.

October 2017

The Gentle Oraclebird is a narrative exploration of kindness, using ritual and storytelling, and a new divination mechanism inspired and derived from the Chinese tradition of "lottery sticks," tarot decks, and carnival-based fortune telling mechanisms.

As an artist and builder, Shing Yin Khor is fascinated by the human impulse to create order and meaning by creating ritual, especially in a difficult and unstable universe. A gentle and considerate fiction, the Oraclebird is a character created to offer a considerate and tender fortune for those who may need an encouraging word.

Artist Bio

Shing Yin Khor is a cartoonist and installation artist that is exploring personal narrative, new human rituals, and collaborative worldbuilding through graphic memoir and science fiction, and large scale art structures. Her themes are inspired by old museums, cabinets of curiosities, pre-Linnaean taxonomy, and the quiet horror of colonial era collecting.

Her immersive and narrative haunted house art installations, The Last Outpost and The Last Apothecary, received grants from Burning Man for their 2014 and 2016 festivals, and she has recently completed another large scale science fiction-themed site specific installation, Salvage Station No. 8, in conjunction with Beam Camp in New Hampshire.

Born in the port city of Malacca, Malaysia, she currently calls Los Angeles home.

Opening Reception:Friday, October 6, 20177 pm to 10 pm

Open Hours:Saturday, October 7, 2017Noon to 4 pm

Special thanks to Lowe's Home Improvement on Silver Drive (Columbus) for generous support of this exhibition.

September 2017Strange Shapes of the Unwarped Primal WorldWorks by Matt Kish

Opening ReceptionFriday, September 8 | 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Gallery HoursSaturday, September 9 | noon to 4 p.m.

Artist StatementBefore I was able to read, I understood that images could tell a story, and in some cases they could communicate more forcefully and more truly than the words on a page. Every book or story I have ever read has played itself out in the theater of my mind as a long series of vivid images. I literally “see” what I am reading, perhaps even more than I “read” the text I am seeing. For most of my life, there has been an unavoidable compulsion to give these inner visions some kind of reality, to take the stories I see in my mind and put them down on paper in ink and in paint. These drawings and paintings, alchemical images borne of everything I have ever seen and read and remembered, show you my life and my experiences as a reader of stories.

Artist BioMatt Kish is a self-taught artist, and a librarian. He has been drawing since before he could read, and has never stopped. He has published Moby-Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page (Tin House Books, 2011) and illustrated Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Alligators of Abraham by Robert Kloss, The Desert Places by Amber Sparks & Robert Kloss, and The Revelator by Robert Kloss. His art has also appeared in the magazines The Chicagoan, Salt Hill Journal, The Turnip Truck(s), and the Japanese art and literature journal Monkey. Last year his work was the subject of a large two artist exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati titled Chasing the Whale and Other Endless Pursuits: Matt Kish and Robert Del Tredici. He is currently at work re-copying the entire text of Herman Melville's short novel Benito Cereno while also illustrating every page as well as creating an original painting for each of the 184 named dead in Homer's epic poem The Iliad.

On ViewSeptember 8 – 23, 2017

August 2017finding light in new placesartwork by dru batte

Opening ReceptionFriday, August 18 | 7 – 10 pm

Gallery HoursSaturday, August 19 | Noon – 4 pm

Dru Batte finds expression through capturing depictions of the shift in her reality and profound changes to her Self and perceptions. The photographer, as the agent of change, interrogates her sentient experience of home, community, environment and world. Here she portrays the intoxicating effect of grief that blurs the lines between comfort and discomfort, the tangible and otherworldly, the real and surreal.

Thematically, the faceless images reflect the isolation and omniscience that grief incites. Expressed in cool tones, these scenes are intentionally vague, anonymous and lacking warmth. The collection encompasses glimpses of her experience amidst the effects of grief.

“It was a way to retain my focus in grief, to observe and consider the world around me, and to understand myself and my perspective of the world.”

Batte’s evolution from the darkness of isolation heightened by life in a community setting, to depression fueled by a sense of aloneness, and finally the emergence from isolation to new light, to her renewed Self. Batte indicates, “I can stand up in defiance and in spite of death.” In celebration of healing, she chose film media for her photography and projection to speak to her reengagement and the chance to find light in new places.

On ViewAugust 18 – 26, 2017

AUGUST 2017934 x PBR

Flyer art by Sarah Schmidt

Opening ReceptionFriday, August 11 | 7 – 10 pm

Gallery HoursSaturday, August 12 | Noon – 4 pm

934 Gallery and Pabst Blue Ribbon are combining forces to throw one epic night of art, music, live painting, animation, and of course PBR.

Save the date for Friday, August 11 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. as PBR takes over the gallery in honor of art and creativity.

Expect work from some of the region's top creative forces including Clint Davidson, Paul Giovis, and Sarah Schmidt, the force behind Malt Adult.

Stay tuned for a full list of talent.

Pabst Blue Ribbon has always been a supporter of the arts and individuals behind it. The art show campaign, held nationwide, shines a light on local artists and the culture around it. PBR continues to serve the art community through the PBR ART National Art Contest, accepting submissions through October 1. The art contest is the perfect way to tie PBR back to those that love it and are inspired by it.

JULY 2017

Pretty relevant jazz:@afrocuban_art_daddy

Ginnsiyo Apara (b. 1989, Columbus, Ohio) studied at Columbus College of Art & Design and is a member artist of MINT Collective. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He painted a mural panel during 934 Fest 2016, which is now on display at Racket Club Recording music studio. His recent body of work explores the human condition amidst waste and urban decay within the confines of the class system.

238238Class as a means to relateMy life as your aestheticChanneling a caramel McCandlessBodega boyRockaway to ConeySplash for the loosiePlease excuse mePlease don't shoot meMy freedom is worth 2.75Wanna get me with the braceletsOnly Cuban links thoYoung turnstile banditWhite dude wanna shoot me for 8Imagine a world with no wasteHuman connectivity is truth through the trash we createAnd you're gonna carry that weightThe weight that loadPast and promiseBlack bags of unrealized hopes and aspirations for the futureNext to the Bustelo and Goya juice boxThe ear that hearsThe touch that touchesThe smell smellerSee what there is out thereIt's all just garbage

JUNE 2017

YOUR ASS WITH MY NAME ON ITARTWORK BY CHRIS JAMES AND JOSEPH W WOLFLE, JR

On View: June 2 - 24, 2017

This is an obnoxious compilation of work inspired by tattoos on naughty bits that usually stay hidden. It’s a carefree romp among dicks, nipples and butts brought to light by the full spectrum of a rainbow blasting through barriers where sun usually isn’t permitted to shine. We’re not sure why it came to this to be honest. Are we sitting in sex ed snickering and throwing paper airplanes? Are we the adult version of those children who finally get to do whatever they want?

Are we just naturally a couple of idiots? We don’t really know or care but maybe it’s just simply for fun. Perhaps in a world full of politically correct, hard working grownups, it just feels good to let it all hang out from time to time.

Opening Reception: Friday, May 57 - 10 pm

Open Gallery Hours: Saturday, May 6Noon - 4 pm

On View: May 5 - 27, 2017

April 2017

Respond and ReactNew Works by Clint Davidson

Opening Reception: Friday, April 7, 20177 - 10 pm

Clint Davidson’s body of work focuses on paintings with no preconceived image in mind. Traditionally, this method of painting would be called “Non Objective”. Davidson embraces this process and lets it guide and inform the decisions he makes. The title “Respond and React” reflects in a concise way the process in which this work was made. Typically starting with one color painted over the entire surface, Davidson responds to the clean field of color with marks or collaged shapes. From this point, it becomes a series of “response” or “reaction” to previous decisions made in an effort to build a relationship between materials, colors, marks, activity, and inactivity. The ultimate objective is to make a well designed and dynamic final image that was built from the process of response and reaction. When working in this manner the materials, marks, colors, and the relationships between these elements become the subject matter.

There are recognizable elements such as bits of typography and graffiti marks which allude to Davidson’s other interests in the vast world of contemporary art. Davidson takes these elements and changes the traditional context of them to suit his needs. By using these elements as subject matter and giving them new purpose, he achieves a stylized and distinct visual language that is specific to him and his story as an artist.

MARCH 2017PLAYING WITH COLOR | COLLECTED WORKS OFMYRTLE BARTOLINI

Opening Reception:Friday, March 3, 20177 - 10 pm

934 Gallery presents Playing with Color: Collected Works of Myrtle Bartolini, a retrospective of the late artist’s work, on view March 3 – 25, 2017.

Myrtle Bartolini (1918 - 2015) began her artistic career in the 1960s and is known for her bright, acrylic abstractions. Bartolini was born in North Dakota to homesteading parents and was raised in Greenville, Illinois.

Her work has shown in nearly two dozen solo exhibitions throughout the Midwest and in international destinations, including Nairobi, Kenya. The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, has her work in its permanent collection. Many of her works are three-dimensional, featuring geometric shapes laboriously painted in a multi-layered process on corrugated surfaces. The shapes and colors weave patterns throughout the exhibition, revealing a vibrant movement. Myrtle was a bright and colorful woman who believed art helps us interpret and make sense of the world.

JANUARY 2017am / becoming | becca lynn + john f. moore jr

Two artists, becca lynn and John F. Moore, Jr., incorporate concepts related to the relativity of time and the shifting nature of being in a series of paintings.

becca lynn is a fine artist living and working in Columbus, Ohio. She received her BFA from Denison University in 2011. She is currently interested in how relationships form identity and the drag queen Katya Zamolodchikova.

In this body of work, lumps of similar colors stack up against one another and a series of figures are treated almost as portrait. These shapes sometimes appear to be a whole entity and sometimes as individual entities stacked on, resting on, or nestling into. They are an evolution from forms that were once more clearly motivated by the body, insides and outsides, sexual organs, and internal organs; a grotesque exploration of the parts of our body where things enter us and leave us, where we physically merge, and where perceived boundaries are crossed.

becca lynn explores how relationships form identity in these works. Specifically, how we are far less solid than we think we are, much more malleable, ever-changing, and much leakier. Our place in relation to time, place, objects, and other people has far more to do with our identity than some mythic personality.

There is an intentional covering up and a revealing/concealing of past shapes (hinted at shapes, ghost shapes, shadow shapes, repeated shapes) all asking what this entity is at this point in time and what past conversations/relationships it went through to become the thing now in view/experience. becca lynn is more fascinated with how it is, rather than what it is.

The act of painting in this way reflects the way we "become" and are "becoming" as people. Painting on white, with white (in addition to acting as covering up or crossing out), is a reference to the wall space, to the edge of the painting, and to the surface of the painting. Another question of where the painting itself is, where you are; is it an object? Must you out of necessity be a separate thing in order to have this relationship?

John F. Moore Jr. was born in Akron, Ohio and is currently living and working out of Brooklyn. He received his BFA from Kent State University while studying sculpture and printmaking and received his MFA at Pratt Institute.

Upon first viewing the film Easy Rider (1969), John F. Moore Jr took special note of an early scene in which Wyatt/Captain America (Peter Fonda) takes off his watch and tosses it away onto the desert floor before driving his motorcycle east with his friend Billy (Dennis Hopper). With this act, Wyatt removes himself from the conventional/societal measurement of time and allows himself to operate independently from this construct.

Repeat viewings and reflection for this 15 second scene taught Moore that perception of time is simultaneously subjective and objective and became the main inspiration for his work in the studio.

Moore’s primary curiosity is based in applying a sense of time to a static object. The process invokes a literal sense of time by documenting the stages of development within each picture. Ghost images and suspended animation -- muted forms and interrupted fluidity -- conjure a perceptual experience of time as things seem to unfold (or cease to unfold). Each of these paintings is worked and reworked over a lengthy process of applying layers and waiting for them to dry, applying layers and waiting for them to dry, applying layers and waiting for them to dry.

The titles refer to abstract experiences of time- history, memory, evolution, and transformations; Play on words creates a literary counterpart to the visual puns initiated by the process and results.

On view: January 6 - 28Open hours: January 7, noon - 4 p.m.

DECEMBER 2016934 GALLERY GROUP SHOW

Opening Reception:Friday, December 27 pm - 10 pm

On view: December 2 - 31

Join 934 Gallery for a curated group show featuring a spectacular array of over 50 works of art from 29 local and national artists in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, painting, photography, collage, and more.

The boundary between dystopia and utopia is blurrier than it seems. Each human advance opens simultaneous opportunities for both increased freedom and control. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the realms of politics and art.

In the span of about two decades, thanks in large part to the dawn of the internet age, we’ve witnessed drastic shifts in the way politics is practiced and disseminated. Take, for instance, the act of voting itself, our most fundamental political practice: the infamous paper ballots with the “hanging chads” of the 2000 election have been technologically improved upon by electronic voting machines. Yet for the problems those machines have solved, they’ve made the validity of our voting process more tenuous and vulnerable to tampering. At the same time, the rise of social media has accelerated radical social movements (Anonymous, Occupy, the Arab Spring) and advanced social shifts (civil rights, LGBTQ rights, drug policy reform). Those same social media outlets, however, have provided increased capabilities for state and corporate control, manipulation, and repression.

Art finds itself in similar predicament, inhabiting the grey area between dystopia and utopia. The arts, put simply, have never been more practicable, accessible, and shareable for more people to reach more people than ever before. This is, of course, not without consequence. Art can magnify and move the line between dystopia and utopia. More importantly, art can help us grapple with the questions implied by the very definitions of these societal extremes.

In this exhibit, our artists attempt to bring into focus some of these questions, and by their practice of dystopian devotion we hope to spur more questions regarding the role that art can play in our world.

OCTOBER 2016HEATHER TAYLOR | MOTOR SKILLS

Motor Skills is a multi-media, interactive, sensory overloaded exhibition. This abstract view expresses a life with dyslexia in the context that the brain is merely wired differently, and not a disability.

Through over-observation of daily life embracing dyslexia, Heather Taylor has found comfort and understanding through art. Her sculptures are composed of various fabrics and textured found objects, representing the difficulty that those with dyslexia face when approaching the task of retaining knowledge and information; because of this difficulty, knowledge becomes precious. Motor Skills features an abundance of texture-heavy material installments throughout the space. Mediums include photography, video, sculpture and performance art with live, encompassing sound design.

SEPTEMBER 2016SAYA DA JUNG | WAS IT A CAT I SAW PAINTINGS AND MIXED MEDIA

Much like the Cheshire Cat of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, digital images appear before us with a wink and a grin, impart a trivial witticism or a spark of emotion, and then dissipate with a twitch of the thumb. The deluge of sensation is constant and rapid, and often it can be hard to find any significance at all, much less remember what was seen. Saya Da Jung's Was it a Cat I Saw attempts to rescue these moments from the flood and transform the fleeting vision into a signifying reality.

The source images for these paintings are the internet's equivalent of found objects – bridging the gap between new media and the avant-garde of the 20th century. In her searches for subjects to paint, Da Jung is drawn to traditionally feminine forms, as her own childhood desires manifest themselves in her attempts to make selections unconsciously. By transforming these digital images into a tactile reality, Was it a Cat I Saw shows us that the techniques of the contemporary visual artist – abstraction, erasure, texture, chance, and intentional corruption – can serve as the means by which to reframe the surfeit of two-dimensional sensation that now dominates our lives. As the Cheshire Cat might have said: If you don't much care what you are looking at, then it doesn't matter which way you look.

SAYA DA JUNG is a visual artist from Korea. She creates works through a variety of media in order to express, articulate and render views of online subcultures. Her creative destruction in art derives from the dual creation-destruction of human life. Saya Da Jung received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Film, Video and New Media in 2010. Since 2002, her work has been exhibited in several group shows in Seoul, Chicago and New York. Recently, her fourth solo exhibition, entitled #by #SAYADAJUNG, was invited to the Geon-Art Case International (GACI) Project Gallery in Chicago in 2015. Her works have been researched and presented by Oriana Nakano, a Curatorial Assistant of the National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan. Da Jung has organized exhibitions and screenings, including SMB Project Part I: C-M Motors (a group show in a Chicago auto repair shop), and was invited as the one of emerging new media artists for the SPEED SHOW CHICAGO: "while loop is true" curated by Jon Cates in 2011. Da Jung currently resides in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York.

CHRISTOPHER CROPPER | NO FISH FRY TODAYNo fish fry today, folks. Instead, have a look at some people. Chris Cropper’s figures look right at you. Bags sag under their eyes, heavy from the strain of daily labor. Chris works spontaneously, creating archetypal figures with raw marks. He keeps his forms general so that they can represent any members of the working class. He illustrates their quiet struggles with subtle facial expressions and gestures. Brightly colored backgrounds surround these forlorn people. The contrast between figureand environment pulls you between the hope and gloom that define ordinary life.

Chris created comic book characters and graffiti in his youth, turning to realism in high school. These trends evolved into his current style, which incorporates elements of street art and formalism. Chris attended Columbus College of Art & Design and was a resident artist at 83 Gallery for five years. He is a fiercely prolific artist, exhibiting widely at Columbus galleries, including Mac Worthington Gallery and Stone Village Gallery.

NICK STULL | LAP LANES CLOSED FOR H2O FIT CLUBNick Stull’s figures avoid your gaze, their eyes disguised by goggles, heads turned to the side. How can you get to know a person without eye contact? Patches of realism provide specific glimpses of an individual subject. Nick layers these moments of intimate detail with spaces of anonymity, suggested by flat, abstract patterns. He arranges these intricate designs in the foreground of his compositions, emphasizing the figure’s mysteries. You're pulled between what you know and what you don't know about this subject. Nick shapes his paintings with the same curiosity that shapes human relationships.

Nick received his BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2008. He currently works as Exhibit Designer and Preparator at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Past positions include Co-Owner and Gallery Director of 83 Gallery and Gallery Director at Mac Worthington Gallery. Nick is a busy artist, simultaneously producing commercial murals, portrait commissions, graphic design, and the experimental figurative paintings exhibited in this show.

JULY 2016LAND OF THUNDERBIRDSPaintings by Adam Hernandez

Opening ReceptionSaturday, July 16, 20167 pm - 11pm

On ViewJuly 16 - 30, 2016

“This is a journey to a place where time and space melt away. There are no rules. The gods and fates are not fair. This is a realm of imagination. Fierce beauty and endless unknown. You must open your heart and mind. This is a world without countries or borders. History is written in the sky. Matter is ever moving. This is a new take on the urban jungle. Giant birds nest in the ruins of once great cities. To survive here, you must put away fear.

This is not our land. We must fight and strive to earn our stay.This is the end and the beginning.

This is the Land of Thunderbirds.”

– Adam Hernandez

Adam Hernandez's paintings are portals to an alternate universe: a world where Aztec-inspired gods and kings traverse amongst squalor and splendor, contemplating life’s heavy issues.

Hernandez was born and raised in the Bronx to a family of musicians and performers. As a child, the bravado and vibrancy of the graffiti that covered every surface of his city spoke to him. With the city's inspiration and the encouragement of his oil painter grandfather, Hernandez set down an artistic path.

Throughout his career, Hernandez has also found inspiration in the works of Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Francis Picabia and Paul Cézanne, as well as the Abstract Expressionist Movement, the Lowbrow Art Movement and comic books. Hernandez currently resides in Columbus, Ohio.

JUNE 2016Vapid Conventionalities | Sculpture by Holly Wilson

“An electronic noise envelops us as we live closely packed together in a society of constant presentation and upkeep. My work amplifies this noise – bluntly asking its audience to reconsider. Acting as a threshold of consciousness – my work is a process that moves the viewer from one way of thought to another.

As the rest of society is passively choked by the man, living in repetition through stereotypes and false realities, a new generation will assemble. Constantly probed to post and comment on every product, place, and emotion we encounter, I want the work to transcend these pressures, and reconnect with reality. Working in an excessive compulsive, I react to these human calamities as a personal outlet.”– Holly Wilson

Holly Wilson (b. 1992, Columbus, Ohio) is an American installation sculpture artist. Her work has been exhibited at ARTROOMS 2016 in London, UK, and Bathtub Electrocution in Syracuse, New York. She received her BFA at Syracuse University in 2015. Wilson is the Co-Director of Apostrophe’ S Gallery and lives and works in Syracuse, New York. Her current body of work incorporates the dissection of discarded appliances and transference of these mechanisms from a state of empty wreckage into tenacious elation. She will be participating in an artist residency at Sculpture Space (Utica, New York) in 2017 and her piece Surpassed By Viable Science (Machine #2) will be exhibited at The Mint Museum (Charlotte, North Carolina).

MAY 2016

934 Gallery Presents:EternalizeAn Exhibition of CCAD Photography Students and Alumni Curated by Sarah Freelan, President of the CCAD Student Photography Collective

Opening ReceptionSaturday, May 7, 20167 pm – 11 pm

On view May 7 – May 21

Eternalize is a showcase of work by Columbus College of Art and Design photography majors and minors, both current students and alumni.

To preserve, sustain, and conserve: this is the photographer’s mentality.

This exhibition highlights that mindset through explorations in all photographic media: digital, traditional, and alternative. CCAD’s photography students come from a diverse background, and span generations, cultures, and lifestyles. As photographers, we study more than the operations of a camera; we study the behavior of light, how to capture the essence of our subject, and how to see photographically. Eternalize presents the full range of this photographic sight, through still images that hold moments in time captive.

APRIL 2016

Opening ReceptionSaturday, April 9, 20167 pm – 11 pm

934 Gallery presents the Anthropocene exhibition, featuring artwork that celebrates the Earth and reminds us of the everlasting footprint we leave here. The scientific concept of Anthropocene examines human actions in relation to environmental consequences, and our awareness of this legacy.

While geologists debate whether or not Earth has now entered the proposed Anthropocene epoch or remains in the Holocene epoch, the impact humankind has on the Earth’s systems is undeniable. Extinction of plant and animal species, disruption caused by large-scale agriculture, industrial landscapes and atmospheric changes are just a few causes for alarm.

The vital energy of the human form is distilled to its purest essence in an exhibition of paintings by Jim Morton and photographs by Will Shively entitled NUDES. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to experience the artwork of two of Columbus' top fine artists in their respective mediums.

JIM MORTON

The influence for James Morton’s paintings is the tradition of painting of the 16th and 17th centuries as seen especially in the works of Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Velasquez. Morton has researched the oil painting methods and materials of these masters through close observation of paintings in museums, the study of early writings on painting technique, and experimentation. He has found that a few simple tricks of painting technique underlie the effects of these masters.

Along with this interest in the painting technique of the masters, has arisen a preoccupation with the female nude as subject. A reading of Kenneth Clark’s book "The Nude" convinced him that there was a rich tradition of imagery stretching back to ancient Greece that has been largely neglected in our time. This subject had been used in earlier art to express emotions and ideas; this content is still interesting and viable, he feels.

James Morton was born in Cleveland in 1947. Early in his life his family moved to Zanesville, Ohio, where his father practiced medicine. His mother who was an amateur artist encouraged his interest in drawing and painting. She sent him to classes at the local art institute taught by Charles Dietz. This teacher and painter had a strong effect on Morton’s development. Dietz taught among other things that a desire to achieve a formal beauty was a sufficient motivation to make a painting.

As an undergraduate at Kenyon College and the University of Wisconsin in the late 1960s, Morton studied art history with the intention of training to become a conservator of paintings. As a graduate student, he wrote his thesis on the subject of the interest of 18th and 19th century British, American, and French painters in rediscovering the technical secrets of the 16th century Venetian painters. After receiving an MA degree in art history in 1971, Morton was disappointed to learn that he is partially red-green color blind; this condition disqualified him from becoming a conservator of painting. But this discovery was ultimately fortunate since it allowed him to fall back on his hope of becoming a painter. He transferred his studies to studio art at UW Madison and received his MFA in 1973 studying under Robert Grilley, a classical figure painter whose work is modeled after Balthus and Ingres. Morton came back to Ohio in 1973, settling in Columbus where he has remained since. He has resided at Milo Arts for about 25 years where he currently lives.

WILL SHIVELY

American photographer Willis Shively is best known for his immense body of portraiture work, captured over a career of four decades.

Shively was born in New York City in 1948. After getting his BFA in painting from The Ohio State University in the early 1970s, Shively went on to teach himself the art of photography while working as a night janitor at a local manufacturing plant. Through hard work and intense focus, he became one of the most respected commercial photographers in Columbus, with clients like Abercrombie, Victoria’s Secret, Express, DSW, and BalletMet, among many others.

Always interested in the blurred lines between his artistic and commercial work, Shively slowly transitioned in the early 1990s to a prolific career as an art photographer, primarily using film development and the layering of 35mm slides to create impressionistic “paintings,” and expand the boundaries of what defines conventional photography.

He currently lives at Milo Arts in Columbus, Ohio with his two poodles.

East coast, West coast, and Midwest meet at the intersection of shape and color in 934 Gallery’s ZONES exhibition, featuring the work of James Douglas Mitchell, David Wien, and Mark Warren Jacques, three artists who have crisscrossed the nation in their creative trajectories. ZONES evokes moods of contrast, reflection, and discovery. Whether defined by temperatures, elements, land uses, comfort levels, or other imperceptible states of being and mentality, we are constantly encountering new zones. Enter the consciousness of these artists and experience the zones they have captured along the journey.

David Wien (b. 1980, Rutland, Vermont) migrated across the nation from Vermont to northern California, making his nest in Upstate New York and Portland, Oregon, in between. The work of this painter, sculptor, musician, skater, and surfer has found its groove in a state of condensed colorblock intensity, evoking Picasso and Matisse with the sway of modern design. He began exhibiting art in public spaces more than a decade ago with interludes in Chicago and Grand Rapids, Michigan, before heading west. Now in the remote reaches of Redwood country, he is pursuing a new zone. Wien received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York.

James Douglas Mitchell (b. 1984, San Diego, California)has transitioned from touring as a musician to reawakening his proclivity for the visual arts through a graphic design background. His pieces embrace the unexpected; beginning as paper collage and transforming into screen prints, Mitchell brings abstract forms to life in solid colors with hints of composition from old photographs and shapes that flirt with suggestions of raw fun. Mitchell’s work has been exhibited at White Walls, San Francisco, and Breeze Block Gallery, Portland. He is currently engaged as a designer and illustrator for Tom Tom Magazine, an artful quarterly about female drummers. The self-taught artist now hails from Brooklyn, New York.

Mark Warren Jacques (b. 1984, Columbus, Ohio) lives and works at Milo Arts in Columbus, Ohio. After a decade-long western stint, including Portland and San Francisco, MWJ has returned to his roots, founding 934 Gallery in the very place that first struck his art nerve. From street art origins, Jacques’ current work comprises intricate lines and patterns accenting bold shapes and colors. His work has been exhibited in spaces near and far, including ROY G BIV (Columbus, Ohio), Number 35 Gallery (Chelsea, New York), A&D Gallery (Barcelona, Spain) and The Forum (Melbourne, Australia). Jacques is currently represented by White Walls, San Francisco, and Thinkspace Gallery, Culver City, Los Angeles, and has upcoming exhibitions at The Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, and SCOPE at Art Basel Miami.

OIL : Matt Carmean, Mario Joyce Harper

September 5 - September 26, 2015

As the seasons shift, 934 Gallery brings to its walls an exhibition featuring the work of two Ohioans whose varying paths have taken root in the same medium of expression: oil painting. Matt Carmean and Mario Joyce Harper deliver diverse yet harmonious visions in their joint show at 934 entitled OIL.

Mario Joyce Harper (b. 1985, Columbus, Ohio) is a self-taught African American artist living in New York City. The celebration of contrasting communities and promotion of individuality motivate him to capture the parallels of basic human struggle and cultural identity in his work. His artistic process began early and was heavily influenced by religious and racial prejudice experienced while growing up in rural Ohio in a Jehovah’s Witness household. He began using both genealogical research and painting to further understand and share the social history of discrimination. Now, after a recent move, he is heavily influenced by human migration and how we adjust to new environments. Harper’s art is characterized by vibrant colors, strong lines and heavy texture, sometimes incorporating collages of relevant vintage documents into the backgrounds of his paintings. His work has been featured in a variety of group exhibitions, most recently at Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, and is privately owned by many collectors throughout the U.S.

Matt Carmean (b. 1958, Findlay, Ohio) paints daily and exclusively in oil. Though his painting is conducted in an environment of reclusive focus, he is otherwise engaged in the community through various avenues, including the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Clintonville Community Market. Carmean’s work overflows from his home studio and carries waves of impressionism to new spheres, incorporating his personal familial symbolism through fluid backdrops that complement realistic portraits in a series of original works, and making societal commentary by overlaying dollar bills with miniature reproductions of the masterworks of Monet and Van Gogh. His longtime home studio is in Clintonville, Columbus, Ohio. Matt Carmean received his BFA and MFA from The Ohio State University and his work has been exhibited at Clayspace Gallery (Nelsonville, Ohio) and Mahan Gallery (Columbus, Ohio) and won Best of Show, Professional Division, at the Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition.

TAKE THE CAKESami Harthoorn and Kate Sweeney

July 2 - July 26, 2015

934 Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new photographic works by artists Sami Harthoorn and Kate Sweeney. Entitled 'Take the Cake', the show addresses interconnected ideas regarding the uncontrolled and uncontrollable power of nature, the social structures of modern womanhood, and the resilience and frailty of the female body. In particular, Harthoorn and Sweeney are interested in how these ideas intersect with form, color, taste, style and the ways in which contemporary photographic depictions of these conventions (i.e. portraiture, landscape, and abstraction) become a form of elegant appropriation, or emotionally-charged ready-mades.

Sami Harthoorn (b. 1991 in Sarasota, Florida) received her BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2013. Recent exhibitions include ‘Exploring New Worlds’ at St. Lucas University College of Art and Design, Antwerp as well as publications in 'Juxtapoz Magazine' and 'Got a Girl Crush’. She currently lives and works in Columbus, Ohio focusing on form, figure, and community practice.

Kate Sweeney (b. 1987 in Columbus, Ohio) is a self-taught photographer whose work has been featured in magazines such as Austere, Clear Nude, and Latent Image, as well as Dazed Magazine's social media. She currently lives and works in Columbus, Ohio, where she continues to make work that focuses on the human form, abstraction, and color. She released a book in February 2015, titled "2014", of 365 self-portraits taken each day of 2014.

The Collected Works of Rick Borg

June 6 - June 27, 2015

934 Gallery is pleased to present Rick Borg - Collected Works. With more than one-hundred pieces of art on display, this exhibition represents 30 years of the artist’s prolific output. Though Borg has formal art training, his work is widely viewed as folk or outsider art and is deeply steeped in those traditions. Some of the works represented here have been in process for decades yet just recently finished, while others Borg finished long ago but kept hidden away, buried in the stacks of paintings that fill every square inch of his live-in studio. Most of the work is on view here for the first time, offering visitors a unique and in-depth look at the life and career of a visionary artist.

Rick Borg (b. 1958 in Columbus, Ohio) received his MFA from The Ohio State University. His works have been collected and exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, in venues both radical and traditional, from bar rooms and barber shops to mansions and museums, including The Columbus Museum of Art and The Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center. Borg currently lives and works in Columbus, Ohio, at Milo Arts, a thriving artist community housed within an historic elementary school building.